Alpine Open Forum Jan. 13 at Gertrude’s
Waste To Energy In Plain English
What do you want to know about the Alpine Energy Deal? Looking for a chance to ask your questions and get answers in plain English?
Crucians In Focus (CIF), in conjunction with the Virgin Islands Ratepayers Association, is sponsoring an Alpine Summit on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, from 6-8 p.m. at Gertrude’s Restaurant. The purpose of the Summit is to give the community a chance to understand the deal, its cost, environmental and health impact in an open discussion forum. Admission is free.
A panel of informed individuals will present information and participate in the forum, including, Sen. Nellie O’Reilly; Paul Chakroff, St. Croix Ratepayers Association; Mario Moorehead, historian and community activist; community activists Steffen Larsen, Dwayne Callwood, George Moore and Clarence Payne; and former senator Adelbert Bryan.
“We’re holding this session so the people can understand this deal without all the technicalities,” said CIF President Michael Springer. “People want to know how this works, what it’s going to cost and what it will do to our health and the environment without all the jargon and legal language.”
The forum will also be broadcast live on WSTX Radio, 970 AM.
Crucians In Focus is a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the people of the Virgin Islands informed on issues that affect our lives in the Territories.
Thank you, thank you Mr. Springer and CIF for finally bringing a forum to the community void of all the ‘smoke and mirrors’.
Good job Micheal. It’s time to run them over like a freight TRAIN!!!
One wonders why there is so much support for this Alpine deal. If you examine the deal and the players from all angles, this does not make sense if this deal is just to make electricity. However, this deal makes perfect sense if you see it as a the plan to clean up our landfills and adhere to the Federal mandates.
It was only a few months ago when the WMA tried to charge a fee for all items brought into the Territory. This plan was so absurd and the public outcry was so loud that that plan was quickly put to rest. However, this still left us with the problem of the landfill and the FAA and Federal mandates that were still in effect to close the landfills or lose Federal funding for the airport. The only way WMA could achieve the goal of solving the problem was to have funding. Thus, the birth of this Alpine deal.
The idea to turn trash into energy is a good idea, but how to pay for it? Ms Cornwall and/or Mr. Hodge was brilliant coming up with this plan. Make it feasible to use our trash by supplementing it with Pet coke and the rate payers would foot the bill! Never mind the plan would cost 440M, never mind the adverse effect it would have on the health of the people of the Virgin Islands, never mind the hoorble pollution we would have to put up with, this would be the first step taken so that we could adhere with the Federal mandates and keep our airport open and funded. This plan was brilliant! Here now is a way to kill 2 birds with one stone. Get rid of the trash AND supply a source of “alternative” energy paid for by the rate payers! The exorbitant cost wa secondary. There would be other methods to bring on renewable energy in the future. The urgent issue was the landfill and this would fix that problem.
This plan makes even more sense when you see that WAPA and the PSC are aware of the geothermal plant that is seeking approval on St. Thomas (Flagberry Hill Project) This plant they are proposing will produce 30 MW of electricity for $46.4M, about $1.55M/MW, much cheaper than what Alpine was proposing AND with no emissions or EPA problems. They wouyld need a total of about 6 permits compared to the many dozed Alpine would have to acquire. Further, this geothermal plan would ELIMINATE the LEAC charge in producing electricity in the geothermal plant, since the heat from the earth is free!
The positives of this plan would be a source of baseline energy for WAPA. It would not be affected by hurricanes. It is not dependent on sun or wind. It is a constant source of reliable, free, clean energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
The negative to this plan would be that far fewer people would be needed to run a plant such as this, so this is not in WAPA’s interest to proceed. The PSC has already heard this plan and even requested more information. They know the viability of this plan yet they still proceed with Alpine.
This would only make sense if the original plan was to solve the Landfill problem.
I pray the PSC allows Windot LLC to proceed with the Flagberry project. I only hope someone hits them upside the head and they expand a project like Flagberry Hill on St. Thomas and proceed to build a bigger plant for St. Croix. The cost would make it feasible for St. John to have their own plant. Doesn’t this make more sense??? Less cost, a reliable source of energy and NO pollution!
What can WAPA and the PSC possibly be thinking? We just have to come up with a different cost effective plan to get rid of the trash that doesn’t pollute our Islands!
I forgot to mention, the ramp up time is 15 months for the Wintdot LLC/Flagberry hill project vs 2012 for the Alpine deal, IF they don’t have any problems with the permitting process. Also, the Alpine deal does nothing to decrease the LEAC, instead, Alpine would put us at further risk if Pet Coke continues to get more expensive and the EPA starts fining for Carbon dioxide pollution.
BERT’S BACK! HEAD FOR THE HILLS! LOL!
Check out this link………
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2009/12/20/thing-don-t-go-better-with-koch-in-the-c?blog=53&title=thing-don-t-go-better-with-koch-in-the-c&disp=single&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Looks like we have another Stanford coming to live among us. Only difference is Koch will make our air dirty and our residents sick if not dead. Add killing tourism to that. Maybe we should have Kock LIVE near the plant he is proposing to build since he says it will not pollute our air and affect our lives.
When will we ever learn? And the fact Hugo is a native son….guess it makes no difference when you get paid off along with Cornwall, PSC commission, VIWMA and WAPA boards…..and of course a few of our illustrious senators.
I heard that the Senators are having a meeting (on the same day as the CIF forum) between Alpine, WAPA, PSC, and senators. Does anyone know when and where that meeting will be? Does anyone know why they scheduled it on the same day after CIF posted their meeting?
You may think that you are getting rid of the garbage by burning it, but you may want to consider what is left behind after the pet coke has been burned. “Pet coke ash” is left behind after the burning of pet coke. This ash has been know to caused birth deformities in wild life. It has to be stored in sealed containers and be protected from hurricanes and heavy rains are it will leak into the ground water and the nearby ocean and kill everything in its path. This ash pile would continue to grow annually, and be more deadly then the garbage itself…Alpine has never even mentioned this ash deposit to the public are what their intentions are for storing it. I guess they are hoping we are all ignorant and stupid. Don’t take your eyes off these people for one second.